No Shadows in "Final View with Shadows"

[Rich Winsor]

This one had me scratching my head. If you like generating a “Final View with Shadows” in your 3D views this may help you one day. I was having so much fun playing around with Ashlie’s castle with courtyard that I decided to put a proper parapet with crenels on the roof of the keep. I accomplished this by cobbling together some soffits and everything looked pretty good so I went ahead and generated a “Final View with Shadows” using default sun settings adjusted so the light would play nicely across the parapet. I was unpleasantly surprised when the rendering showed nothing in the way of shadows for the crenelation (see 1st thumbnail). This led to a session of double checking default settings, preferences and display options as well as trying different materials for the soffits. Nothing seemed to do the trick and waiting the requisite 30 seconds for the view to regenerate every time I tried something new had me going bonkers. When I finally stumbled upon the solution it took literally 3 mouse clicks to rectify the problem (see 2nd thumbnail). Anybody know what was wrong? It turned out that since the keep was already 3 stories high I had to generate the soffits for the parapet in the attic view of the floor plan. When I went to the “Perspective Full Overview” to generate the “Final View with Shadows” I had switched the “Change Floor/Reference” to floor 1. For some reason the software generated all the structure correctly but would not put the shadows generated by the objects drawn on the Attic level. I merely clicked on the “Up One Floor” icon 3 times to go to the Attic level and generated a “Final View with Shadows” and as David is wont to say, viola! There are all the shadows. It turns out that the only way to get all the shadows to generate is by generating the view from the attic floor. Views generated from floors 0, 1, 2 and 3 don’t display shadows for objects on the A floor. Go figure. I also took the opportunity to get the balky 3D flag poles and banners I imported to display their colors properly (see thumbnail 3).

[David J. Potter]

My advice is to present this to Chief Architect Inc Tech Support for solving. I have never experienced this problem so I have no other advice to offer.

DJP

[JoAnn]

I tried this with both the 2D and 3D set to the attic floor, and it made no difference. The only way I could show the sun shadows on the crenelated walls was to adjust the sun settings. I always find it to be VERY confusing and difficult to get the sun adjusted to what is wanted. I sure wish Home Designer would offer more detailed information about the sun settings in their FAQS index!

[Rich Winsor]

Damn, it looks like someone else has been tinkering with their castle drawing too. Very impressive, you have taken crenelation to a new level. I see several interesting things taking place in your drawing. Is this a 3D view that was generated from the A (attic floor)? And on what floor did you generate the crenels on the roof of the keep? If you look closely it appears that the crenels on the front, back and left side walls of the keep roof are not generating shadows. Note the lack of “notches” on the shadows cast by the left wall top on the ground in the courtyard below. It’s harder to see but the front and back walls don’t show the shadowing that is present on all the second floor crenelation. These are the kind of results I was getting when generating views from floor levels below the attic.
As for your confusion regarding adjusting the default sun settings maybe I can shed some light (pun intended) on the subject. The two basic settings that control the light are “Tilt Angle” (a measure of how high the sun is in the sky) and “Direction Angle” (an indication of which direction the light is coming from). I have prepared a little sketch (see thumbnail #1) showing the range of these angles. The default is set up so that a “Direction Angle” of 90 degrees will always shine directly on the front of the building. If you keep this in mind it’s pretty easy to predict the shadow directions, no matter what the orientation of the building may be in the 3D view. Reverse engineering your drawing I would estimate the default sun settings you used to be in the neighborhood of: Tilt Angle…about -45 degrees and Direction Angle…about 180 degrees. Why the “Tilt Angle” measurements are in negative numbers escapes me and leads to unneeded confusion. I have included some very simple thumbnails illustrating the effects of some basic changes. You also have the option of changing the color of the light (see last thumbnail). If you want to experiment a very simple drawing is beneficial because it eliminates all the waiting for the “Final View with Shadows” to generate.
BTW, where did you find those wicked spires? Very nice touch.

[JoAnn]

Yep. I couldn't stop tinkering. You must already know how that is...like trying to stop a speeding train!

My 3D is generated from floor 1 (it made no diff. which floor I used). The crenelation walls are generated from floor 3 (for 2 story outer bldg.) and attic floor for the 3 story keep.
I used soffitts, then blocked/copy/paste to simplify and speed things up.

I found the spires at 3d warehouse.

I really liked your sun chart.. It helped me to better visualize how the sun settings interact with each other (I wasn't comprehending it that way, prior to your chart display).
Soooo....I went into a photoshop frenzy and created this sun shadow chart of my own!

I hope these charts help anyone else out there who are sun shadow challenged!